he talked about the women, women, yeah, who signed the declaration of independence. >> men and women who signed that declaration of independence wrote this final phase. we pledge to be each other, we pledge to each other our lives, our fortune, and our sacred honor. >> all right, so we know that santorum is trying to make good with women voters. professor newt gingrich would surely tell all of us, mr. santorum, signers of the declaration of independence, all men. the boys did wear wigs. nothing wrong with that. joining me professor james peterson, director of african studies at lehigh university and a blogger for the "huffington post." it's nice to see you with me today. let's talk about arizona and michigan. these are a done deal in the win column for mitt romney. but it's on to super tuesday.

the crucial state of ohio. we saw those polls. he's got some real fighting in front of him right now. how much çmitchmentum does he t out of last night? >> not that if you have. clearly santorum still has the momentum here. ohio demographically is a state he'll play to better. remember, mitt romney does well with older folk and wealthier folk and ohio will have more of those sort of the folk in western michigan, those kind of people will be there to support him, as well. part of the reason why romney is asking for money is because he's going to need more resewerses to put out the nav ads against santorum. >> rick santorum gave a lengthy speech talking about what they would say a dog whistle for the bible belt. take a listen. >> our founders had a fundamentally different understanding of that word.

happiness was not going out and doing whatever you want to do to make yourself feel good. happiness was not doing what you want to do, but doing what you ought to do. >> so doing what you ought to do. he's also said the same thing about freedom, but doctor, do you get the sense that rick santorum's ideas about freedom and happiness are limited in scope, and if so, does that hurt him moving forward? >> first, let me step down from my snobby perch from the halls of indoctrination to try to answer this question. clearly mr. santorum is speaking very subjectively here. i'm not sure if i agree with his sense of happiness. it's important to note what he should be talking about is civic responsibility. but he can't use the term or phrase civic responsibility because too many folk on the right think that's a leftist wa

conservative narrative here but it's difficult to do that in this context. >> karen finney is the former dnc communications director, also as msnbc political analyst. cy can't help but bring up the correlation and draw this comparison to president obama in the rousing speech. we were sitting together watching it, the uaw yesterday. the new york post had a column last week titled the real problem with rick santorum. he says the former pennsylvania senator looks like he swallowed a lemon. there is no way that a man who expresses such a dark view of the american national can win the presidency. >> i think that's certainly part of it.

i was pleased to see that catholics didn't go for his message and that what a lot of us have been saying for a while now proved to be true, which is you know, that kind of almost evangelical catholic some have tweeted me and said it's like opus dei rhetoric. it's too much. santorum when you talk to people who worked for rick santorum, they said, look, this is who he is. he sometimes doesn't realize the impact of what he's saying. maybe what you saw last night is him trying to walk that back a bit because sure, that doomsday language, you know, people got to remember, this countryç has had some tough times for a long time. we are starting to turn the corner and people need to hear we can do it, we're moving forward. here's my vision. it's not enough to just attack, attack, attack, attack. you've got to then also have a vision. you have not heard that from rick santorum. the only vision you've heard him lay out is one that says no contraception, women at home not working.

you're selfish if you work outside the home. you know, you're a snob if you want to go to college. my dad went to college on the gi bill for goodness sakes. so whatever he thought he was connecting to in terms of a positive vision really did not resonate with people. >> karen, are you more encouraged that michigan democrats didn't come out to vote for rick santorum after the robo acall robocall. >> there was no way michigan democrats were going to vote for rick santorum. >> dr. peterson, super tuesday, 424 delegates at stake. then the real geographical spread as we talk about the country. are we going to see a reprice of the mason dixon linable with strum, maybe newt gingrich fighting for the south, romney claiming the north in the west or are we going to see romney come out victorious that day? >> i think we'll see romney ultimately be victorious on that day. when we get the numbers, we'll see the break downs demographically along certain both class lines, some regional lines. and then you'll be able to do

all different funny tricks with him to figure out who is supporting her. you'll have wealthier older folk supporting mitt romney. sometimes those folk are more likely to vote and for rick santorum depending on how the rhetoric unfolds out of his campaign, he'll be playing different politics. he's got to walk back some of theç stuff on gender if he wan to go strong in the southern states. there's a lot of women in the south voting who do not want the government involved in the decisions about contraception. it will be interesting to see how the dem graphics break out but at least all three factors will be important for super tuesday. >> karen, talk more about ohio. university of cincinnati as i led into this segment talking about rick santorum leading ohio by 11 points. 11 points. so here he is coming in there, not with the momentum of coming off of michigan and arizona. but coming in there with the momentum he's garnered on his own campaign. >> remember in ohio, both rick strum, frankly, and mitt romney,

there are a couple problems they're going to have. number one that anti-union anti-labor message is not going to play well. remember earlier this year, we saw people across the political spectrum in the same way we saw in wisconsin, we saw them come out and make their voices heard in ohio. they don't like where rick santorum and mitt romney stand on those issues. that wasn't just democrats. number two, ohio also a state that was impacted by the auto rescue. so again, you've got two guys going in there who have a couple of positions that don't resonate well with voters again not just democrats but independents and republicans. so i think it would be very interesting to see how that turns out. one other thing i want to mention because we were focusing so much on the southern states. i think ohio this is relevant. we're not going to necessarily get eight full picture of what the general election will look like because in the republican primaries, you don't have high turnout of latino and african-americans. we know that both of those votes

will be critical and important as the]úu president obama. we're going to get a mixed picture next tuesday in terms of the real strength of whichever candidate emerges victorious. >> karen, was it a leap, a limp or a lurch for romney? >> it was a limp. >> you only get one. >> limp, baby, limp. >> dr. peterson, a leap a limp or a lurch? >> he's lumping for sure. remember, this was his state. michigan is something he should have won by five, seven ten points to barely win it by three, 3 percentage points is probably not the best look for mitt romney right now. >> a win is a win. dr. james peterson, karen finney, great to see both of you. coming up next, republicans in congress won't surrender in their war on women. stay with us. >> my mom an and dad took me from national park to national park. that car was a rambler. it was a rambler. >> a rambler. >> rambler. we had a rambler. >> they drove us in their rambler, by the way. carfirmation.

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welcome back. want to give you an update on breaking news we've been covering throughout the day here on msnbc. this storm system moving across the country has killed at least seven in the midwest. and the system is racing east this afternoon. there's a threat of tornadoes from the mid south and ohio valley into the carolinas today. already severe weather left this path of damage across six states from the illinois to missouri. a storm track we'll continue to watch very carefully. we'll bring you updates right here. how we go back to washington and gop leaders were on the floor of the senate just an hour ago. tomorrow's vote on an anti-birth control amend would mean defeat

of the white house is compromise. >> it's not about a specific procedure. it's about a faith principle that the first amendment guarantees. but -- >> but their democratic counterparts got in front of this issue today. two hours earlier, they drew a line in the sand on senator roy blunt's amendment. >> it is pure partisan politics and we are here today to say it is not going to pass. the right wing of the republican party does not speak for most of the women in this country. >> joining me now is democratic senator barbara boxer of california who was at the democratic news conference today. senator, good afternoon. >> good afternoon, thomas. >> tell us all a little bit more about the impact of the blunt amendment, that it would have on women's health care in this country. >> the blunt amendment is a radical amendment. it would not only take away the ability of women to get contraception through their insurance, but it would threaten

every single essential health care service, every single preventive health care service. if your employer or your insurance company had a moral objection. so let's say you work for someone who believes prayer is the answer to all diseases. you won't have any insurance. it is a radical departure from what we've always done in this country which is to give a conscience claus exemption to religious institutions and religious affiliated institutions. but not allow someone to say, for example, you know i think if somebody is overweight and they get a heart attack, that's their problem and i have a moral objection. therefore, to making sure that they can get health care after a heart attack. this is how radical the blount amendment is. but here's the thing i want america to understand. we are on a highway bill, a transportation bill. a bill that has come out of four committees with strongç bipartisan support.

2.million jobs are at stake. there are so many construction workers out of work because of the housing downturn. we want to put them back to work. and what's the first amendment that republicans put up? a contraception amendment, which they say is about religious freedom which has nothing to do with it because president obama has taken care of that. in a grand compromise which catholic charities support and the catholic health organizations support and catholics united superior. so that's taken care of. they're just radical and going after women's health. that's the truth. >> obviously, the conversation is offtrack when you talk about the promising conversations, the bipartisan support for the highway bill that you mentioned. senator murray is promising failure for the blunt amendment coming up tomorrow. i want to let everybody know in virginia, the governor there, with a watered down the ultrasound bill. there was a house hearing on that mandate yesterday that featured three women, one of whom was for the mandate. do you think that this conversation is one for the win

column yet? >> the conversation on going after birth control or which conversation? or forcing women to undergo procedures not medically necessary and taking that away from them and their doctors? are you asking me if this attack on women's health care is going to continue? is that your question? >> basically. is this attack on women's health care going to continue? is this conversation not going to be forded by polittefication of women leaders on the right and left? you want to get the conversation back on track to important measures like the bipartisan support for the highway bill. so why is washington so distracted and states like virginia soç distracted by thi conversation? >> because all you have to do, for example, is look at the republican presidential election. the republicans are caught up in this right wing ideology. and they can't stop themselves. honestly, until women just get their attention as they did in

virginia where they backed off of actually mandating an invasive procedure, they finally had to back off of that. some politician there said his wife threatened him she would never talk to him again or something if he did this. the fact of the matter is, these republicans can't help themselves. they've turned into a right wing party. it's fanatical. it's turning on the women of this country. when you have senator snowe saying what she did and she is a moderate republican, the last of the wonderful breed of people that i've worked with for many years on many issues saying that these polarizing issues have no place in these debates, she's absolutely right. by the way, today she came out against the blunt amendment. i'm so happy about that. >> senator, while you can respect the colleague that he senator snowe has been to you, do you look at this as an opportunity for the democratic party? >> well electorally absolutely, outside of senator snowe, the

other republicans as i understand it who are running represent that right wing, that's declared war on women's health, war on workers' rights, war on the environment. i think we democrats there have a very good chance because it is quite a good democratic state. but you know, the most important thing to the people there, they're not partisan. they want to know, are you going to fight for our families and going to fight for our children. are you going to stand upç for the 99%, are you going to protect our rights. and i think in the case of that election without senator snowe in there, we should pick up that will seat. it's always a fight, but i think we should. >> senator barbara boxer, thanks for making time for us. i appreciate it. >> always a pleasure. next up, the president tries to bring both sides together in washington. that is a pretty tall order but can it be done? stay with us. >> we didn't win about i a lot but we won by enough and that's all that counts. >> i happen to have a perfect candidate for president. his name is john ellis bush, jeb

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we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. welcome back, everybody. if you will imagine a bipartisan jobs bill that could pass muster with house gop leaders and the president. well, one is in the works as we speak right now. a few hours ago, the president lunched with congressional leaders of both parties to see if they can make magic happen. for more, we turnton nbc's kristen welker at the white house. explain to all of us about the luncheon. we'll talk about that in a second. i understand you have news is regarding the reverend franklin grah graham's appearance on "morning joe" that took place last week. >> as you know earlier this month, reverend franklin graham made headlines because he essentially questioned president obama's religion. the naacp issued a statement in the wake of that saying that they were concerned that his

comments would wind up fomenting racism. so yesterday, reverend graham came out and apologized saying that if the president says he's christian, he believes that he is. i asked white house press secretary jay carney if he was satisfied with that apology. the reaction was the white house didn't ask for an apology. the white house not really wanting to get into this matter it seems like. as of right now, reverend graham has apologized and seems like the matter's been put to rest at least for the time being. >> steady aboveç the fray it seems like is the attitude the white house has. this jobs package, the potential, the dream, the imagination of bipartisanship. how did the lunch come about? what are the results, if any? >> well, president obama invited congressional leaders to have lunch with him. they haven't met since this summer. so it was certainly an important lunch. and what came out of it was interesting, thomas. both sides sort of talking about the fact that the lunch was positive, they felt like they were able to identify some areas of common ground, if you will,

on a jobsing about. of course, the house has their own package. president obama put forth his jobs package. so interesting to hear them sort of talk about the fact that they were able to find common ground. some of the areas of common ground on small businesses both sides agreeing that they'd like to find a way to provide tax cuts for small business owners, also businesses that hire. but of course, thomas, as you know, one of the big dividing lines has always been how to pay for these sorts of things. so they were able to identify common ground today. will that hold when he they actually sit down and start to do the hard work of figuring out how to pay for all of this, we'll have to see. again, both sides saying that this was a positive meeting. thomas? >> kristen welker at the white house, nice to see you, thanks. >> thanks. >> stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up next. >> my 93-year-old mom. my mom's in a very, well, unusual person for her time. she's someone who did get a college education in the 1930s.

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who signed that declaration of independence. >> what did you say? >> the men and women who signed that declaration of independence. >> let's get to our panel now and say hello to joe and reid, managing editor of the grio.com. ladies, it's nice to have you here. that was good stuff. when you can do something from anchor man and get it in the with the gop primary candidates, it's good stuff. joann is, rick santorum talking about his 93-year-old mom saying she went to college. also talking about women having signed the declaration of independence. the boys that did, they wear wigs. that's cool, nothing wrong with that. joking aside, does he have what it takes to continue in this race. he came so close in michigan. is that the momentum that he needs to move on to super tuesday? >> i hope he hasn't told his mom she's apparently a snob because apparently she is.

no is, for rick santorum, second place counts for nothing in politics. at the end of the day, he couldn't beat mitt romney in michigan. he is as unstable a candidate as the establishment republicans think he is. i think there ever, mitt romney as before is going to be the nominee. >> i see we have a lot of conversations about santorum, about romney, newt gingrich not getting a lot of attention. here we go moving forward into super tuesday where the south, he could dominate. newt being the comeback kid that he is could do really well. when we talk about though delegates, because i want to get everybody up to speed on that, he runs second in terms of allotted delegates. here's the total for everybody right now. super tuesday, banking on his showing in the south, in your opinion, do you think he could make a comeback? >>. >> no, i think the fat lady sung for newt. he's resorting to desperate measures after complaining for months. >> you mean talking about trees?

>> no, for months talking about how dirty this campaign has been. he and his super pac released this scathing ad going into super tuesday. he's been outrun and outspent in georgia, his home state by his own admission he said if i don't win my home state, i should be out of this race. he might not win his home state. that's 76 delegates. it's a big deal. >> joann, in the home state of georgia, some polls show santorum really eating into his lead. what does that is say? if gingrich cannot carry georgia. >> i think it's about electability. i think the base of the republican party is sort of looking at who can beat barack obama in the end. i think that will newt gingrich has not passed that test and therefore, i don't think it matters that his home state is technically georgia. i think the problem for santorum is a lot of those polls were taken before he didn't win michigan. people are going to take a second look at his potential electability. ing. >> i've got to say, we're ignoring the fact that rick

santorum came in, won colorado. he wasn't supposed to win colorado. that was a huge win, almost frankly won michigan, which would have been huge. and could actually end up beating mitt romney in delegates in michigan. so going ahead, i mean, he's up in ohio by double digits over mitt romney. he could have a very good super tuesday. >> something to talk about when we speak about the speculation of bedfellows between ron paul and with romney himself. i want to show everybody. this is the speculation, just the back story is the fact that maybe there's this is deal that will romney has with paul to put rand paul in the vp spot, but take a listen to this. >> the last thing i've done is talked to mitt romney. besides he wouldn't talk to me about that. that's just fiction and it's mostly been promoted by somebody i guess who's super involved in conspiracy theories. that's santorum's doing that. >> all right. so all people love a good conspiracy theory, right?

>> sure. >> is there something real to this or is this just bunk? >> i don't think there's anything real to it. if you look back historically, you haven't had to be nice to the other guy running against you in a primary to get him to come over and be your vp later. you haven't had to be nice to his father to get his son. obama and biden had an incredibly contentious relationship during the primary and ended up bringing him on to be vp. if mitt romney somehow has eyes on paul, i don't think he needs to make overtures to ron to secure that. >> this is why they say always be nice to the interns because you never know when they'll be your boss. >> is ron paul the intern in that situation? >> i don't know. thanks so much. come up next, another republican in congress calling it quits. has washington become tool toxic for the nation's good. we take a look after this.

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so is it still possible for the two political parties to work together for the good of the country? like felix unger and oscar madison, president obama and house majority leader eric cantor are joining together on a bill to make it easier for small businesses to get loans. and today, the president welcomed leaders of both parties to the white house for a lunch meeting to discuss areas where the two sides might find that will common ground. congressman james clyburn is a democrat from the south carolina and the assistant democratic leader and joins me now. sir, it's great to have you here. we had senator boxer on at the top of the hour talking about the fact that this is a day when we're seeing senator olympia snowe, republican of maine saying she's going to be retiring and not rerunning. because of congress and the rancor, the partisan gridlock that takes place in modern day. do you hold any hope that the two parties can ever get back to governing and could it be with the president's job bill.

>> i think so. i really hate to see olympia snow leave. she was a joy to work with on the recovery act. we worked quite a bit together. and on the education part of the affordable care act, we worked on that together. so she was -- she is a person that is really a joy to sit down and compromise with. the fact of the matter is i find it interesting that with everything in life, we know that we ought to sit down and try to find common ground. and this whole notion that there cannot be any compromise and for a party to say the word should never be used, the fact of the matter is that's what this country was built upon. this country was built upon compromises. our constitution was written upon compromises. you cannot have good solid legislation unless you compromise. there's nothing bad about that word. i'm enjoying 50 years of

marriage because i learned to compromise. >> that's actually a good place to start from the right there. you can talk about 50 years of marriage, if that works there, you can apply that will everywhere else in your life especially in the halls of congress. >> absolutely. >> earlier this month the rnc sent out something called a pundit prep document. its purpose was to mitigate any damage that may be occurring from the improved economy. and it reads "the three best ways to define is the barack obama economy, the national debt which is skyrocketing, the unemployment wit is north of 8% and gas prices." just to point out the markets yesterday closing the dow above 13,000. that psychological mark we haven't seen in years. do you believe republicans are actually rooting, though, for the economy to fail so that they have something to talk about? i mean for americans to be in hardship so that they can win back the white house? >> it seems that way. that's a shame. i do believe that there are enough differences that exist between us and them for us to

point that out to the american people and not have the to the worry about forcing people to stay unemployed, forcing unemployed people out of the their weekly or monthly income, unemployment insurance, and doing things that should mitigate the damage that people are feeling in their everyday lives. we do not see the world the same way. the republicans approach the governs is different than the democrats. we ought to be out there laying out our vision for the future and running upon that, not ruining for there to be failure for the economy to collapse for jobs not to be created. i just believe that we can find a way to differ without having people suffer. >> congressman from 2006 through 2008, democrats, blamed president bush when the gas prices soared in this country. are you worried that president

obama is going to be hurt if gas continues to go up? i'm talking about $5 or more this summer because as we stand right now leading into march, we will have never seen gas higher at this time of year. so if gas prices are this bad leading into the summer driving season, isn't that just going to be some talking points and something that the president really needs to address? >> oh, no question about that. and i do worry about that more than a little bit. not just because of what it might do to presidential re-election, but what it will do to the rural communities that i represent, what it will do to the farmers to have to pay that big, that higher gas tax. that bothers me a whole lot. but i know that we live in a sound bite world, and i do know that a 30-second sound bite on the high gas prices could, in fact, cause real damage to the president's re-election chances

aside from what it will do to my constituents. >> but sir, like decorating for christmas right after thanksgiving, talking about high gas prices is an annual and event in this country right now. why can't the conversation get back on track where the country understands what the fluctuation is with gas prices and why we see the rate and the expense of gas go up at this time every year? >> well, because the speculators seem to get involved around this time every year. that's what this is about. we are a net exporter of oil now. we are developing more oil than we can use domestically and we are exporting it. so if that's the case, then why is it increasing? we have to get the american people to understand that the speculators, many of whom ruined the housing market and collapsed the economy in this country are

now speculating on oil prices, as well. and the extent to which we get people to understand that the speculators are driving these prices and not the demand i think we'll be in much better shape. >> james clyburn, thanks for joining me today. i appreciate it. >> thank you so much for having me. >> stay with us. we're going to be back in just a moment. sarah... will you marry me? i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. ♪ i would've appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide you with proactive updates on the status of your home loan. and our innovative online tools ensure that you're always in the loop. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. ♪

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welcome back, everybody. rick santorum's impressive showing in michigan and republican rage over the contraception provision in the president's health care bill have combined to return faith to the forefront of this campaign. frank schaefer is a blogger for the "huffington post," the author of "crazy for god." and joins me now. in the case of rick santorum specifically, did he turn off too many.mainstream voters, even republicans with his comments about president kennedy's speech

on separation of church and state and making him want to throw up? is that why he lost michigan? >> yeah, it's part of the reason he lost it. the other thing is that these types of approaches that the republicans have been taking since the religious right took over the party have been a long time in coming. you know, there's some people that in the mainstream media you know, most folks don't know the about the so-called intellectuals who have laid the groundwork. my father was one of them as i write about. richard john new house started a right wing magazine called first things and then today you have the roman catholic liaison between the protestants and the bishops in the roman catholic church. these guys wrote the script for santorum. i don't mean that literally but they wrote books. if you look about his phraseology talking about the naked public scare and the humanists pushing out.

and the snobbery because he hates higher education, this all comes out of the belly of the beast of the religious right that's been forming as i talk about in crazy for god since the "crazy for god," since the 1970s. today things are so bad that, for instance, right now i'm launching a speaking tour called "theocracy or democracy" that is going to about 30 or 40 colleges and churches to argue this point. so it isn't just going to come and go with santorum. there is a bunch of people out there who would rather have america be closer to a theocracy than what we think of as a democracy. >> as we look at mitt romney, unapologetically mormon, admitting taking part in baptizing the dead like his father-in-law, any idea why that isn't hurting him among christian evangelicals in this country? >> oh, it will. and it's one of the reasons that president obama, who i believe is a great president, is going to win re-election. and that is a that the evangelicals have a list of hatreds. they hate gay people the most, followed closely by the

immigrants, followed closely by roman catholics, but the evangelicals despise mormons. sooner or later, the way it's going to hurt mitt romney is that these guys will just not be enthusiastic for him. first of all, he's plastic from the knees up anyway. he's a super wealthy person of 1% of the 1%. and then you're going to have a lack of evangelical enthusiasm for him because, you know, when it all comes to push down, you know, they think obama is a muslim, think he's not a real american, but they know mitt romney is a mormon and they despise mormons. i think the republicans have bought themselves a problem. they've painted themselves into a corner, and as i say again, the intellectual figures like robert george, who have been so clever in getting the roman catholic bishops to have this trumped-up issue about civil liberties and religious civil liberties of the roman catholic church over contraception, these same guys who are putting bills in statehouses to force women to have ultrasounds before they can have an abortion, it's all going

to come to haunt them because they've made religion the center of the campaign, and of course that means religion is going to be an issue for mitt romney. so if they had all just been quiet about this, they would have had a chance with him. now they've made it an issue and it will come back to bite them. >> it's almost like we're saying you can't be someone who has spirituality and faith in this country and be in an election at the same time. roy blunt proposed this amendment to the highway bill allowing employers to refuse to offer coverage for any specific procedure if it is contrary to moral or religious beliefs. with an idea like that, where is the country heading if that's the conversation that's taking political analyst in washington, d.c., when such important things, such important work, is not getting done in d.c.? >> well, if you look at countries like saudi arabia and iran that are theocracies and you wonder why their local economies aren't doing so well, it's because they have imposed

all these moral strictures -- women can't drive, people can't do things if they're protestants or roman catholics because they're not good muslims. i'm not saying that's where we're headed, but if you took the logic of the kind of thing i'm talking act in my speaking tour, the logic of where people like robert george of princeton in getting these catholics and bishops together like chuck colson, far-wight evangelical thinker, you know, the logic of where they're pushing is not to take us to iran but it's a theocracy lite. it would be american democracy tempered by what they would call biblical absolutes which means we're no longer under the rule of law as most americans would understand it. it's in not a level playing field. if you're a white christian, evangelical, conservative roman catholic, all of a sudden you get special privileges -- you get tax exemption but you also get to say, oh, well, we're not going to insure women for

contraceptions. that's the world they would create, what it is headed towards. >> frank, good to have you on today. we appreciate your insights. thank you. >> thomas, thanks for having me. >> we'll be right back. first, thanks for the memories to davy jones. ♪ wake up sleepy jean oh, what can it mean to a daydream believer ♪ ♪ and a homecoming queen ♪ for a hot dog cart. my mother said, "well, maybe we ought to buy this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years. the day starts with arthritis pain... a load of new listings... and two pills. after a morning of walk-ups, it's back to more pain,

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mean a lot to you, to your family. tell us about what it means specifically to you as you're representing your home state of maine at the white house tonight, also being picked for this honor. >> well, it's a great honor to be one of 78 servicemen and women selected to represent the hundreds of thousands that served honorably and very courageously in the war we fought in iraq. so for me it's just a great privilege to be selected for this, and i'm looking forward to having a great evening with the president. >> colonel, a lot of veterans groups have been pushing for a ticker tape parade or something to honor the returning vets. in your estimation, do you think that that's appropriate considering that we still have troops in afghanistan? or would it be your choice to just wait until everyone comes home and do a celebration for their service and their commitment andorwell, i think t

been very gracious recognizing us as we come back and forth from the war in iraq and afghanistan as well. i know the american people will support whatever is decided regarding recognition that we do further down the road here. >> well, we want to wish you the very best. have a wonderful time this evening. congratulations on the honors you've received, but most of all, thank you for your service and commitment to the country. thank you, sir. >> thank you. thank you. it was an honor. >> absolutely. that's going to do it for me this afternoon. thanks for watching. dylan ratigan is here to take us forward through the next hour. >> tell me the truth, thomas, you're loving these republicans, right? listen, just from a crazy factor, just from pure crazy -- >> it's news. it makes news, dylan. that's what i'm do. just here for the news, baby. >> i'm not even sure it qualifies as news anymore. >> i'll with be watching for the next hour. you tell me. >> technically it is.